APUA promises to pay protesting staff

Workers in the Telephone Department at Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) returned to the job yesterday afternoon following promises that their increments would be forthcoming by the end of this week.

The 150-plus employees staged a sit-in from around 7 am to 1 pm on Tuesday to press for their outstanding “raises” and in some cases “bonuses” that are based on performance assessments conducted in 2015.

The workers also claimed that workers in other APUA departments who had undergone similar assessments during the same period had already received their pay raises and bonuses.

While that was happening at the Cassada Gardens office, APUA executives, reportedly including the General Manager Esworth Martin, met with the President of the Antigua Trades & Labour Union, Wigley George and the shop steward at the company’s city headquarters.

An APUA offical told OBSERVER media that the sit-in occurred because there was “a misunderstanding” between the staff and management with regards to the conclusion of the 2015 performance assessment.

The company would add only that “Management, the union and staff were able to clarify the misunderstanding and the issue will be resolved by the end of the week.”

This newspaper was unable to reach the AT&LU for a follow-up to the meeting, but a worker who wished to remain anonymous, shared what was reported to him by union officials after the said meeting.

“The company is going to work out what each person should get and will send that to the accounts department and we will know where we stand,” he said.

This newspaper has been unable able to independently verify the workers’ claims that all the other departments have received the increments linked to the performance evaluations.